Nigerian students in electric car crowdfunding drive

A group of Mechanical Engineering students from the University of Lagos has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support their zero-emission automobile built to reduce global warming.

The team, calling themselves Project Dove, successfully developed a prototype of a zero-emission automobile for urban use last year. Upon completion of the prototype and in a bid to replicate the technology at other Universities in Nigeria, they are launching a crowdfunding campaign on sanzy.co, aiming to raise $25,000. The campaign starts on January 29, 2016.

With recognition from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and the Vice Chancellor of the University, the project is seen as an initiative to expand across Universities. The team hopes to establish the project in 20 tertiary institutions before the end of this year, and equip fellow students with the tools that would be needed for the design and construction of the vehicles. Team lead Olusanya says electric vehicles would become a new trend in the future, noting that the world would soon run out of fossil fuels. When asked if this would be the Tesla for Africa, Olusanya answered in the negative, exclaiming that the goal was to build valuable technologies in Africa.

The members of the group believe that support raised through a crowdfunding program is more than financial as it expresses care and love towards the young generation.

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